262 JOURNAL OP THE TRINIDAD 



REPORT OF CLUB MEETING. 



8th October, 1895. 



PRESENT: Professor Carmody, V.P., in the chair; Messrs. 

 W. S. Tucker, Syl. Devenish, M.A., J. R. Llanos, T. W. 

 Carr, Dr. F. A. Rodriguez, J. A. Rousseau, M.A., H. 

 Caracciolo, F.E.S., Charles Libert, J. B. Inniss, R. R. Mole, 

 F. W. Urich, Hon. Secretary and Treasurer. After the minutes 

 had been read and confirmed Mr. R. R. Mole proposed and the 

 Vice President seconded Mr. John Joseph, a candidate for town 

 membership. Carried unanimously. — The Secretary read an 

 excuse from Mr. John Barclay for not being present and not 

 being able to forward a paper which he had promised for this 

 meeting. Mr. Mole read some notes " On some peculiar feeding 

 habits in the Trinidad Ophidia " which elicited a lengthy 

 discussion in which Mr. Devenish, Mr. Tucker, Dr. Rodriguez, 

 Mr. Urich and the Vice President took part. Mr. Mole was 

 awarded a vote of thanks for his communication. — Mr. Ewen, 

 having forwarded a spider (found by Miss Mitchell hanging by 

 a filament of its web) which had been killed by some 

 fungoid growth, giving it the appearance of being covered 

 with powdered sugar, Mr. Urich read some passages showing 

 that the fungus was probably a cordyceps. He described some 

 experiments made in the United States with the spores of this 

 fungus which resulted in the death of myriads of a very destruc- 

 tive caterpillar. A discussion followed in which Mr. Caracciolo, 

 Dr. Rodriguez and the Vice President took part and Mr. Urich 

 expressed a belief that sooner or later economic entomology 

 would receive much more attention from Agriculturists in 

 Trinidad than it did at present. — Mr. Mole showed 25 young 

 mapipires (Trigonocephalies atrox) born in his collection, the 

 brood consisted of 26, but 25 were dead when born. He 

 thought this was due to the fact that the mother and a com- 

 panion of the same species had a family quarrel a few da} T s 

 before the event, during which the snakes furiously bit each 

 other about the mouth, head and neck. As the members knew, the 

 species was a very venomous one, and the consequence was the 

 heads of the combatants swelled to an enormous size — they 

 looked like a couple of pugilists after a hax'd prize fight where 

 each party had got an equally severe punishing. The swelling 

 went down next day. He thought this was the reason for the 

 great mortality among the 3'oung ones. The one survivor, how- 

 ever, was doing well and had gorged a lizard and a frog. The 



